There was no real distinction between the monarch’s public and private interests in early medieval times; the entire country was theoretically owned and disposed of by him, and his household servants had enormous public responsibilities. The evolution of the public/private distinction took centuries, and was enormously important, from a constitutional perspective.
Donald Trump didn’t get that memo. Predictably, he views the US government as being the Trump Organization on a grand scale. Everyone in it, including the State Department and the DOJ, works for him personally, not the nation. Anyone who works against his interests by complying with the law is a traitor, and should be executed.
In a way, Trump’s obtuseness is the real story here; he barely even made any effort to cover up this outrageous abuse of power, because he thought it was self-evidently OK. In reality, it is Mueller, Part Deux, with the elements of the new crime mostly confessed.
Now there are only two remaining questions: will the whistleblower’s allegations be corroborated; and what will the GOP do in response? More on that in subsequent posts.